Today we’re going to be talking about a number of things that can help us but in the wrong amounts can harm our chances of success.
These topics are stimulants, pride, and familiarity. Each one has some benefit and some negative aspects. Now most of the examples for today come from one of my favorite game series: Stalker.
I recently downloaded the first game onto my new computer and all I can say is that it’s good to be back in the Zone. So we’ll start out with the topic of familiarity.
Familiarity can make it easier for you to deal with problems. This is one of the reasons why I talk about having transferable skills and concepts. If we can draw a correlation to something we’ve done previously, we can handle the new problem more easily because we have a skill for it.
However if we try to treat every problem the same because that’s how we’re familiar, we fall into a trap. If we think every problem is absolutely the same we’ll begin to ignore the extra factors that make that problem unique. These unique factors can utterly throw us off and result in a failed project.
This brings us to the next topic, pride. The word pride has been used in many negative connotations over the years, but’s the only word we have for it in English. I believe we need to take some level of pride in our work. Being pleased with putting out your best effort helps ensure that product is good. If you don’t, then the product will be terrible because you didn’t care enough to put in the effort.
Too much pride for no reason can result in us creating more problems and taking on things that are too much for us. This is where the Stalker series comes in. I’m very experienced in playing the games, especially Shadow of Chernobyl. I recently downloaded the game to my new computer and tried to power through the first three campaign missions.
For those of you who haven’t played Stalker, it is a humbling game. You might think all the other first-person-shooter games have prepared you for it, but they haven’t. If you don’t use tactics or even if you do there is a high likelihood that you are going to die. The very first mission you’re given had me die at least 6 times trying to complete it.
The game reminds us that no matter how skilled we are, how much money, or how much resources we have we are only feet or seconds away from possible failure. The perfect example of this was the sight I saw as I ran from a group of armed soldiers. A local boar had gotten to close to an anomaly and was turned into a literal meteor of blood. If that doesn’t make you want to be cautious I don’t know what will.
But sometimes we need something to keep us going. This brings us to the last topic, stimulants. Now I know the way I say that makes people think of drugs. But what I’m more talking about are things like caffeine and energy drinks.
In Stalker you need to be in possession of a number of stimulants in order to make the journey across the Zone in Shadow of Chernobyl. The Stalker brand energy drink replenishes your stamina, allowing you to run more consistently under a heavy load. There have been numerous times I’ve slammed back about 6 of these drinks in order to get by a dangerous place as quickly as I could.
Sometimes we need something to get through the day. I drink coffee because I like it, but some times I absolutely need it to compensate for a lack of sleep. If we get into the situation where we need stimulants every single time that could result in us prioritizing the stimulant rather than our tasks.
This re-prioritization will result in more and more of our effort being drained to fuel what is now our addiction.
Try to moderate your intake of things and your reactions. Too much of any one thing is harmful.
Think about it.
Sincerely,
The Irreverent Gentleman
gentlemansuniversityofmanliness 